Monsters - Initial Sketches

I've created a list of emotion names that I want to be the names of monsters in the game - and also have these be reflected in the design of the monster itself. More research is needed into different types of existing monsters and traits associated with the emotions - example, bitterness is like poison - to influence monster design. I turned out a page of sketches I did to get some ideas down and help get me into a mindset for monster design.

 I'm least pleased with the wolf's snout. I've done wolves with little issues before, but rather than risk deformed wolf faces in the future, I need to look up reference photos before trying again.

Main Character Design

After a retooling my original game concept, I went to work on redesigning my main character. My goal was to have her in clothes that are from the current, modern world (as opposed to a past time or a fantasy-based world like a Final Fantasy universe) but, as I myself term it, people would still want to cosplay as. My first page of attempts fulfilled the first goal, but not the second. They were just too normal.

After deciding on what elements to her outfit were important - there had to be some element of flowiness around her hips, either a skirt or something with a similar effect - I tried again.... this time leaving the overly ordinary world from the first page, and firmly tripping into final fantasy.

Now I was approaching a better feel for the outfit, separating the skirt from what would actually giving volume in the outfit around her lower half. However, the main character is from the real world, and the majority of these outfits wouldn't pass close to everyday wear in a place other than a fantasy world.

A tiered tunic shirt gave the flowing feeling I wanted her to have as she moved or in the initial scenes she's first seen in, when she's lying on the ground with white cloth spread around her. I now have to design her footwear - I'm leaning towards knee-high lace up boots in a similar design to a picture I found of a runway model - but I've finished a good deal of her outfit.

I need to go in for detailing, like what the broach on her sweater will be, and how the back of the outfit will look.

BFA Show

For the show, I think I would need about ten to fifteen feet of wall space to post my sketches. I'll also most likely need some sort of podium, for a book of work - either sketchbooks or a 'graphic novel' or the intro of my game.

Calendar

week 1:

- start of MC designs (Pale Girl and Ghost)

-refinement of MC designs

week 2:

-refinement of MC designs/beginning of other character designs

-refinement of characters

week 3:

-environment sketches

-environment refinement

week 4:

-beginning of transfer of selected works to final compositions

-continue transferring, refining lines on final works

week 5:

-continue sketches, transferring, and begin color process 

- "

week 6:

- "

- "

week 7

- "

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Project Statement

Concept art is a vital part of video game design, but more than that, the advent of concept art has raised video games from merely activities to an art form. In the past when video games were an arrangement of simplified pixels the idea of it being art would be ludicrous. One person would be capable of creating a video game, perhaps not a very good game, but could easily do so. Two programmers were then all that was necessary to make an interesting game that could absorb hours of attention. Games were merely diverting, with practically no graphics to truly speak of. And then, when there was graphics of a more complex quality, they were hardly well done or captivating to the eye. Now, dozens of people are devoted to the creation of characters and environments, and breathing life into them to match the life that will hopefully be in the video game itself, designed to draw every player into a world that doesn’t exist outside the television screen.

It has been argued that video games can’t possibly be art, since there is a winner and a loser involved, likening video games to sport and claiming that since football games do not belong in art galleries video games cannot either. However, books and movies have long been hailed as creative art forms that yes, can too be mediocre and boring, but when done correctly can be inspiring and world-changing, the author’s creativity and ingenuity celebrated and admired. Movies and books typically revolve around a main character who must overcome obstacles, perhaps a main foe to defeat. The hero may triumph, or perhaps they die, pulling at our hearts and emotions. So too do video games revolve around main characters and their story as they strive towards their goal, whether that be saving a princess or protecting the world. If other forms of media can be hailed as beautiful, moving pieces, or even as terrible failures at achieving aspects of their art – but still regarded as art or acknowledged as attempting the potential of it – why should video games be denied their place in a world of ever-growing mediums for art?

Video games raise the bar in the field of art, but it is not merely enough to be a video game and therefore art. A harlequin romance novel can hardly be placed on the same level as a work by Dostoevsky, and so too do video games exist on different levels. The work of concept art is what raises the bar for not only video games but for various existing forms of artistic media. Several artists not only have formed work based on the idea of video games, but on the work of the concept art and that which was formed from it, extending to creating video game art based pieced which can be appreciated by those who are not gamers – perhaps even more appreciated for their ignorance since they cannot judge the works on their preconceived notions of where video game art falls in the spectrum.